Storage manager independent configuration interface translator and method

ABSTRACT

A system, method and computer program product comprising a storage manager independent configuration interface translator which requests an opaque listing of the available storage devices from an associated metadisk driver and determines a subset of the listing meeting a preselected search criteria. The resultant opaque listing is then converted to a non-opaque format listing for presentation to a user of the computer system in a desired format such as through a command line or graphical user interface. A notification mechanism is also provided that presents information about storage devices which have in some way changed while in use.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention is related to the subject matter of United States Pat. No. 5,802,364 for "Metadevice Driver Rename/Exchange Technique for a Computer System Incorporating a Plurality of Independent Device Drivers" and Ser. No. 08/632,546 for "Event Notification in a Computing System Having a Plurality of Storage Devices" filed on even date herewith and assigned to Sun Microsystems, Inc., assignee of the present invention, the disclosures of which are hereby specifically incorporated herein by this reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates, in general, to the field of computers and computer operating systems for operatively controlling a plurality of computer mass storage device drivers coupled to a computer operating system through a metadevice or metadisk driver. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system, method and computer program product comprising a storage manager independent configuration interface translator

Currently available storage manager programs for computer systems are generally release dependent. That is, they must be expressly designed for use with particular releases of an associated computer operating system. Moreover, existing storage manager programs have generally been tied to a particular developer's operating system and have not been able to function as an extensible, generic storage management product to apprise a user of the storage devices available for use and their configuration as part of larger groups of storage devices. Still further, existing programs have not been able to provide an acceptable notification mechanism for queuing any changes in the status of the underlying storage devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention advantageously provides an extensible, generic interface to a computer mass storage management system that presents a catalog, or listing, of storage devices available for use and their configuration, whether as part of a redundant array of inexpensive disks ("RAID"), mirrored set or other groups (or sets) of devices. It also conveniently provides an event notification mechanism to present information about any changes in the identity, configuration, status or utilization by other hosts of the underlying storage devices. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention may be implemented as a portion of the Solstice™ DiskSuite™ program and may also be utilized in conjunction with other available storage managers such as the Veritas™ volume manager and the IBM logical volume manager.

The storage manager independent configuration interface translator disclosed herein utilizes a group of opaque storage descriptors which may be queried by accessor functions to determine, for example, error conditions, device set relationships and the like. The storage descriptors each have an associated storage descriptor identifier ("SDID") which are linked and function as publicly accessible (i.e. non-opaque) keys by an associated command line interface ("CLI") or graphical user interface ("GUI").

In a specific embodiment disclosed herein is a method for computer mass storage management in a computer system incorporating a metadisk driver and associated database containing information corresponding to devices operatively controlled by metadrivers coupled to the metadisk driver. The method comprises the steps of requesting an opaque listing of the devices from the metadisk driver and determining a subset of the opaque listing of devices meeting a preselected search criteria. The subset of the opaque listing is converted to a non- opaque format listing and is presented to a user of the computer system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The aforementioned and other features and objects of the present invention and the manner of attaining them will become more apparent and the invention itself will be best understood by reference to the following description of a preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a simplified representational drawing of a general purpose computer forming a portion of the operating environment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a simplified conceptual representation of an exemplary computer program operating system incorporating a storage manager independent library configuration ("libconfig") block for operative coupling to a plurality of metadrivers through a metadisk driver as herein disclosed;

FIG. 3 is a simplified conceptual representation of a number of storage descriptors, each having an associated storage descriptor identifiers ("SDID"), which may be conceptually "anchored" to the command line interface ("CLI") or graphical user interface ("GUI") of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The environment in which the present invention is used encompasses the general distributed computing system, wherein general purpose computers, workstations or personal computers are connected via communication links of various types, in a client-server arrangement, wherein programs and data, many in the form of objects, are made available by various members of the system for execution and access by other members of the system. Some of the elements of a general purpose workstation computer are shown in FIG. 1, wherein a processor 1 is shown, having an input/output ("I/O") section 2, a central processing unit ("CPU") 3 and a memory section 4. The I/O section 2 may be connected to a keyboard 5, a display unit 6, a disk storage unit 9, a CDROM drive or unit 7 or a computer network 11 such as a wide area network ("WAN"), local area network ("LAN") or other network connection such as the Internet. The CDROM unit 7 can read a CDROM or CDROM medium 8 which typically contains programs 10 and data. The computer program products containing mechanisms to effectuate the apparatus and methods of the present invention may reside in the memory section 4, or on a disk storage unit 9 or on the CDROM 8 or network 11 of such a system.

With reference now to FIG. 2, a simplified conceptual representation of an exemplary computer program operating system 20 is shown. The computer operating system 20 incorporates a storage manager independent library configuration ("libconfig") block 26 which receives inputs and passes outputs to a command line interface ("CLI") 22 as well as a graphic user interface ("GUI") 24. The libconfig block 26 is designed to be storage manager independent and software release independent.

The libconfig block 26 interfaces with a libmeta block 28 which is subject to change dependant upon the requirements of a particular software release and is generally designed for a particular storage manager. In the illustration shown, libmeta block 28 includes a unique interface 30 for communication with a metadisk driver 36 having a similar interface 30. The libmeta block 28 and metadisk driver 36 communicate through the user 32 and kernel 34 layers of the operating system 20. As shown, the libconfig block 26, because it is storage manager independent, is able to communication directly with an alternative storage manager 38 in lieu of metadisk driver 36.

Metadisk driver 36 (which is more fully described in the co-pending patent applications referenced earlier) has an associated database 40 which may interface with a slice (or partition) of a storage device through a DDI/DKI interface in a UNIX™ based operating system 20, such as the Solaris™ operating system available from Sun Microsystems, Inc., assignee of the present invention.

The metadisk driver 36 overlies a number of metadrivers corresponding to various computer mass storage devices and configurations as shown. In this regard, a stripe metadriver 42, a mirror metadriver 44, a RAID metadriver 46 and a trans metadriver 48 may be used. It should be noted, however, that these various metadrivers 42-48 are merely exemplary and not intended to limit the types of metadrivers, layered drivers, or other computer mass storage drivers which might be utilized. The metadisk driver 36 also has an associated notify block 50. The notify block 50 functions as a rendezvous point for queued messages regarding storage device related events such as information about any changes in the identity, configuration, status or utilization by other hosts of the underlying storage devices.

With reference now to FIG. 3, a simplified conceptual representation of a number of opaque (or non-public) storage descriptors 60 is shown which may be coupled through a conceptual "anchor" 52 to the CLI 22 and GUI 24. The storage descriptors 60 each are associated with a publicly accessible (or non-opaque) storage descriptor identifier ("SDID") 62, as shown which function as keys and allow the CLI 22 or GUI 24 to view their contents through the mechanism of the anchor 52.

The following functions are described in greater detail to more fully illustrate the functionality of the storage manager independent configuration interface translator and method disclosed herein in conjunction with the particular implementation used in the Solstice™ DiskSuite™ 4.0 computer program developed and licensed by Sun Microsystems, Inc., assignee of the present invention. The initial listing which follows relates to a function which may be utilized for obtaining a set name list:

    ______________________________________                                         NAME           cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- setname.sub.-- list,                                                 cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- setname.sub.-- list,                     - obtain or                                                                                destroy a vector of set names for the                                          local host                                          SYNOPSIS               #include <config.h>                                                                int cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- setname.sub.--                           list(char                                                                                  ***et.sub.-- name.sub.-- list.sub.-- p)                                        void cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- setname.sub.--                      list(char                                                                                  **set.sub.-- name list)                             DESCRIPTION         These functions allocate or destroy a                                                 vector of set names that are known to                                          the DiskSuite subsystem on the local                                           host, respectively.                                 ARGUMENTS             set.sub.-- name.sub.-- list.sub.-- p                                                This is the address of a vector of                                             character strings which are allocated                                          by cfg.sub.-- get.sub.--  setname.sub.-- list(                     ) and set                                                                                  equal to the names of sets which are                                           defined on this host.                                                          set.sub.-- name.sub.-- list                                                    This is the vector of character                                                strings which was allocated by                                                 cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- setname.sub.-- list( ).       RETURN VALUES     Upon success, a value of 0 is                                                           returned. Otherwise the return value                                           is an errno, as in intro                                                       (2).                                                ______________________________________                                    

The following functions relate to the construction of an opaque object list:

    ______________________________________                                         NAME         cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- id,                                                      cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- setname,                         cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- next,                                                              cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- rewind, cfg.sub.--                         getsd.sub.-- toplevel,                                                                     cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- sd - read and                            manipulate                                                                                 storage descriptors                                   SYNOPSIS          #include <config.h>                                                                   int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- id(sdid.sub.--                   t sdid, void                                                                               **storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- pp)                                         int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- setname(char                     *setname,                                                                                  void **storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- pp)                                    int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- next(void                                              **storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- pp)                                         int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- rewind(void                                            **storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- pp)                                         int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- toplevel(sdid.sub.-- t                     sdid, void                                                                                 **storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- pp)                                         int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- sd(void                                              *storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p)                  DESCRIPTION         These functions manipulate storage                                                  descriptors, storage descriptor                                                identifiers and textual storage                                                descriptors. Storage descriptors                                               describe the objects which contain                                             storage without exposing internal                                              DiskSuite interfaces or data                                                   structures.                                                                    cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- setname( )                                   sets its argument                                                              storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- pp to refer to                    an                                                                                         allocated list of storage descriptor                                           pointers. This list may be walked                                              using cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- next( ) or                                       repositioned to the list head with                                             cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- rewind( ).                                             cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- sd( )                                                deallocates the list that was                                                  allocated by cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.--                     setname( ).                                                                                cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- id( )                                        is used reposition the storage                                                 descriptor list to the entry                                                   identified by sdid.                                                            cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- toplevel( )                                            is used to obtain the uppermost                                      containing object. Since some objects                                          are orphans, the appropriate set                                               contains all such otherwise                                                    unattached objects                                                             For normal storage devices, mirrors                                            would contain the stripes which make                                           up its sub-mirrors, for example.                                               cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- next( )                                                is used to set storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- pp                             to the next element in the list. At                                            the end of the list it is set to                                               NULL.                                                                          cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- rewind( )                                              resets storage descriptor.sub.-- pp to the                                     beginning of the list. This is most                                            useful just before calling                                                     cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- sd( ).                                ARGUMENTS         setname                                                                     This is a NULL-terminated character                                            string which identifies the set for                                            which storage descriptors are to be                                            obtained.                                                                      storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- pp                                            This is the address of a void pointer                                           which will be allocated by                                                    cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- setname, manipulated by                      one of the following cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.--                       id,                                                                              cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- next,                                                  cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- rewind ,                                                cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- toplevel or de-allocated by                           cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- sd                                                   storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p                                                     This is the current position of the                                            storage.sub.-- descriptor list as obtained                                     from cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- setname.                                sdid                                                                           This is a public interface to the                                              contents of a storage descriptor.                                              Described fully in cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- sdid,                                 it is usually obtained from the event                                          handling routines.                                      RETURN VALUES                                                                                    Upon success these routines return 0.                                               Upon an error, the appropriate error                                           number from intro                                                              (2) is returned.                                        ______________________________________                                    

The following functions determine the attributes of opaque objects and whether or not they are of interest:

    ______________________________________                                         NAME          cfg.sub.-- validate.sub.-- sd, cfg.sub.-- sd.sub.--                            is.sub.-- err,                                                                            cfg.sub.-- sd.sub.-- is.sub.-- owned, cfg.sub.--                    sd.sub.-- is.sub.-- toplevel -                                                            check validity and attributes of a                                             storage descriptor                                    SYNOPSIS            #include <config.h>                                                                 int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- sd.sub.-- is.sub.-- err(void                                        *storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p)                                           int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- sd.sub.-- is.sub.-- owned(void                                      *storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p)                                           int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- sd.sub.-- is.sub.-- toplevel(void                        *storage                                                                                  descriptor.sub.-- p)                                                           int                                                                             cfg.sub.-- validate.sub.-- sd(void                                             *storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p)                 DESCRIPTION    These functions check the validity or                                                     attributes of a given storage                                                  descriptor.                                          ARGUMENT           storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p                                             This is the current value of the                                               storage descriptor list obtained from                                          zone of cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- id( ) or                             cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- setname( ).                                  cfg.sub.-- sd.sub.-- is.sub.-- err( )                                          returns TRUE (non-zero) if there is                                            an error in the associated devices                                             state.                                                                         cfg.sub.-- sd.sub.-- is.sub.-- owned( )                                        returns TRUE (non-zero) if the                                                 storage descriptor refers to an                                                object which may or may not be owned                                           by a given host. These include                                                 objects of type MDSD.sub.-- HOST and                                           MDSD.sub.-- SET.                                                               cfg.sub.-- sd.sub.-- is.sub.-- toplevel( )                                     returns TRUE (non-zero) if the                                                 storage descriptor refers to an                                                object which is not contained by any                                           other storage descriptor. Examples                                             of top.sub.-- level devices include the set                                    entry and mirrors which contains sub-                                          mirrors                                                                        cfg.sub.-- validate.sub.-- sd( )                                               may be used to verify the contents of                                          a given storage.sub.-- descriptor. This is                                     useful to verify that wild pointers                                            have not written over its contents                                             and to verify that it hasn't been                                              deallocated. It returns TRUE (non-                                             zero) if the storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p is                             valid.                                                                         All of these routines return FALSE on                                          any error condition.                                        ______________________________________                                    

The following functions compare and retrieve the public identifiers ("SDID"):

    ______________________________________                                         NAME                    cfg.sub.-- cmp.sub.-- sdid, cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub                     .-- sdid,                                                                                cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- sdid, -.sub.-- compare,                        allocate                                                                                 and deallocate storage descriptor                                              identifiers                                          SYNOPSIS             #include <config.h>                                                                 sdid.sub.-- cmp.sub.-- t                                                       cfg.sub.-- cmp.sub.-- sdid(sdid.sub.-- t sl,                         sdid.sub.-- t s2)                                                                        int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- sdid(void *storage-                                   descriptor.sub.-- p), sdid.sub.-- t *sdidp)                                       int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- sdid(sdid.sub.-- t                         *sdidp)                                                        DESCRIPTION       These functions manipulate storage                                                     descriptor identifiers, which are the                                          public key to storage descriptors.                                             cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- sdid ( )                                                 translates the data within                                                     storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p and fills in                      the                                                                                      values into sdidp.                                                             storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p may be                            obtained                                                                                 from one of the cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- *                                      functions.                                                                     cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- sdid ( )                                             returns any memory that was allocated                                          within the sdidp by cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- sdid                       ( ).                                                                                     It does not deallocate                                                         cfg.sub.-- cmp.sub.-- sdid ( )                                                 allows sdid-t's to be compared. It                                             returns one of the following                                                           enumerated types, according to the                                     following type definition.                                                     typedef enum sdid.sub.-- compare {                                             SDIDCM.sub.-- UNK,                                                             SDIDCMP.sub.-- NO,                                                             SDIDCMP.sub.-- EXACT,                                                           SDIDCMP.sub.-- STALE,                                                          SDIDCMP.sub.-- TYPE                                 }               sdid.sub.-- cmp.sub.-- t;                                                            SDIDCMP.sub.-- UNK                                                             An error occurred while attempting to                                          compare sl, and s2. No comparison                                              was made.                                                                      SDIDCMP.sub.-- NO                                                              The two storage descriptor                                                     identifiers, sl, and s2, do not                                                match.                                                                         SDIDCMP.sub.-- EXACT                                                           The two storage descriptor                                                     identifiers, s1, and s2, are                                                   identical.                                                                     SDIDCMP.sub.-- STALE                                                           The two storage descriptor                                                      identifiers describe the same object                                           but the object is likely to have                                               changed between the time when one or                                           both of s1, and s2 were last checked                                           against the driver's state.                                                    SDIDCMP.sub.-- TYPE                                                            The two storage descriptor                                                     identifiers match only in type of                                              object, but otherwise are different.                                           Storage descriptor identifiers                                                  (sdid.sub.-- t) are a public interface to                                      the data within storage descriptors.                                           They are usually obtained from the                                             event handling routines. (Storage                                              descriptor identifiers consist of                                              enumerated types and unique keys for                                           each object (see config.h.) as below.                                          The fields which uniquely identify a                                           storage descriptor are the sdi.sub.-- type,                                              sdi.sub.-- key, and sdi.sub.-- ctime.                    typedef struct storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- id {                           struct storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- id *sdi.sub.-- next;                   char       *sdi.sub.-- name;                                                   char                               *sdi.sub.-- setname;                        u.sub.-- longlong.sub.-- t                                                                                sdi.sub.-- user;                                    mdsdtyp.sub.-- t                                                                                             sdi.sub.-- type;                                 u.sub.-- longlong.sub.-- t                                                                                sdi.sub.-- key;                                     time.sub.-- t                                                                                                   sdi.sub.-- ctime;                             } sdid.sub.-- t;                                                               Storage descriptor types are described by                                      one of the following enumerated values.                                      typedef enum md.sub.-- storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- type {       MDSD.sub.-- UNK = SDTYP.sub.-- UNK,                                                            /*explicit illegal value*/                                     MDSD.sub.-- USER,                                                                                       /*user-specified storage type*/                       MDSD.sub.-- UNSPEC,                                                                                        /*unspecified storage type*/                       MDSD.sub.-- STRIPE,                                                                                        /*block interleave/append*/                        MDSD.sub.-- MIRROR,                                                                                        /*block replication*/                              MDSD.sub.-- RAID5,                                                                                          /*striped parity*/                                MDSD.sub.-- TRANS,                                                                                          /*transacting device*/                            MDSD.sub.-- REPLICA,                                                                                      /*data base replica*/                               MDSD.sub.-- HSP,                                                                                              /*hot spare pool*/                              MDSD.sub.-- HS,                 /*hot spare member*/                           MDSD.sub.-- RESERVED,                                                                                    /*unavailable for use*/                              MDSD.sub.-- SET,                                                                                         /*administrative collection*/                        MDSD.sub.-- HOST,                                                                                       /* hosts able to own the set*/                        MDSD.sub.-- MEDIATOR                                                                                      /* arbitrator*/                                     } mdsdtyp.sub.-- t;                                                            ______________________________________                                    

The objects described are all constructed pseudo-devices which provide a class of storage (ie. mirrored) or administratively-related entities.

    ______________________________________                                         RETURN VALUES  Except for cfg.sub.-- cmp.sub.-- sdid, as described                                        above, these functions return 0 upon                                           success. Upon error, an errno is                                               returned, as in intro (2). ep is                                               filled in with the error information.               ______________________________________                                    

The following functions convert opaque objects to a readable format:

    ______________________________________                                         NAME          cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- text.sub.-- sd, cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub                   .-- text.sub.-- sd,                                              allocate and deallocate textual                                                                       storage descriptors text                                SYNOPSIS          #include <config.h>                                                                 int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- get.sub.-- text.sub.-- sd(void                                      *storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p, sdtext.sub.--                    t                                                                                       **sdtpp)                                                                       int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- destroy.sub.-- text.sub.-- sd(sdtext.sub                   .-- t *sdtp)                                                     DESCRIPTION    These routines allocate and                                                            deallocate textual storage                                                     descriptors, respectively. Textual                                             storage descriptors are printable                                              versions of the information packeted                                           within storage descriptors, which are                                          themselves described in                                                        cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- id.                   ARGUMENTS        storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- p                                                   This is a pointer to a storage                                                 descriptor as returned by                                                      cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- id ( ) or                                    cfg.sub.-- getsd.sub.-- by.sub.-- setname ( ).                                 sdtpp                                                                     This is the address of a pointer to a                                          textual storage descriptor.                                                         typedef struct                                                                 storage.sub.-- descriptor.sub.-- text.sub.-- t {                               char *storage.sub.-- allocator.sub.-- name;                                    char *name;                                                                    char *type;                                                                    char **attr;                                                                   char **components;                                                             storage.sub.-- allocator.sub.-- name                                       is set to the identity of the storage                                          manager. The DiskSuite ™                                                    implementation of the storage manager                                          independent configuration interface                                            translator and method of the present                                           invention available from Sun                                                   Microsystems, Inc. sets this string                                            to "DiskSuite".                                                                name is the pathname of this device                                              in the file system tree.                                                     type is a string identifying the                                                      device, such as "mirror" or                                                    "RAID5."                                                                attr is a vector of attributes (which                                              may be NULL) set to the strings                                                   "error", "owned" or "toplevel."                                         components                                                                            is a vector of component names.                                                These are usually, but are not                                                 required to be, sub-devices such                                               as cOt1dOs1.                                         RETURN VALUES Upon success, these routines return                                                 0. Otherwise an error is returned.                          ______________________________________                                    

The following functions are event related:

    ______________________________________                                         NAME           cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- create, cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- get,                                     cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- put, cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.--                     off - register to                                                                          obtain event notification, collect                                             events, send events and turn off                                               event collection                                    SYNOPSIS            #include <config.h>                                                                   int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- create(char *qname, int                       flags)                                                                                     int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- off(char *qname)                                          int                                                                            cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- get(                                        char    *qname,                                                                void        *sdp,                                                              int          wait,                                                             sdid.sub.-- t                                                                            *sdidp                                                                 )                                                                                      int3                                                                           cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- put(sdid.sub.-- t *sdidp)          DESCRIPTION      These functions register to collect,                                                 send and receive configuration                                                 events.                                                                       cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- create ( )                                                      is used to register to collect                                    events in the named event                                                      notification queue qname. Its                                                  behavior is modified                                                                 CFG.sub.-- EV.sub.-- PERM                                                             This flag indicates that the                                      named queue will not be                                                        destroyed automatically on                                                     process exit.                                                                        CFG.sub.-- EV.sub.-- EXISTERR                                                         This flag indicates that it is                                    not an error for a user to                                                     attempt to create an event                                                     notification queue that already                                                exists. If this flag is not                                                    set, and the named queue does                                                  exist, the errno EEXIST will be                                                returned.                                                                                cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- off ( )                                                      unregisters event collection and                                  causes the named queue to be                                                   deleted.                                                                       cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- get ( )                                                                          returns the appropriate sdid                            within the address of the sdid.sub.-- t                                        for all events that are in the                                                 named queue. If no events are                                                  present then this routine will                                                 either block or return without                                                 setting sdidp according to                                                     whether the wait argument is                                                   TRUE (non-zero) or FALSE (zero),                                               respectively.                                                                     cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- put ( )                                                                 may be used to send user-                                     specified events. User data may                                                be sent in the sdi.sub.-- user field of                                        the sdid.sub.-- t.                                              RETURN VALUES  Upon success, the number of events                                                         collected or sent are returned by                                              cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- get( ) or cfg.sub.--                          ev.sub.-- put( ).                                                                          cfg.sub.-- ev.sub.-- create ( ) and cfg.sub.--                     ev.sub.-- off ( )                                                                          return 0 on success or errno to                                                indicate failure. Errors are                                                   indicated by a negative value. The                                             absolute value of this will be an                                              errno, as in intro(2).                              ______________________________________                                    

As has been shown, the storage manager independent configuration interface translator and method of the present invention herein disclosed first determines what sets or groups of storage devices are available for use and then determines what storage descriptors are in use in those particular sets. Since the storage descriptors are opaque, an accessor function is utilized to get inside of them. The opaque structures are then converted to a non-opaque format text which can be utilized by CLI and GUI tools. The present invention also provides a notification mechanism that presents information about devices which have changed while in use.

While there have been described above the principles of the present invention in conjunction with specific operating systems and drivers, it is to be clearly understood that the foregoing description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of the invention. Particularly, it is recognized that the teachings of the foregoing disclosure will suggest other modifications to those persons skilled in the relevant art. Such modifications may involve other features which are already known per se and which may be used instead of or in addition to features already described herein. Although claims have been formulated in this application to particular combinations of features, it should be understood that the scope of the disclosure herein also includes any novel feature or any novel combination of features disclosed either explicitly or implicitly or any generalization or modification thereof which would be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art, whether or not such relates to the same invention as presently claimed in any claim and whether or not it mitigates any or all of the same technical problems as confronted by the present invention. The applicants hereby reserve the right to formulate new claims to such features and/or combinations of such features during the prosecution of the present application or of any further application derived therefrom. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for computer mass storage management in a computer system having an operating system and physical storage devices that are operatively controlled by mass storage device drivers, said mass storage device drivers being operatively controlled by metadrivers, said method comprising the steps of:providing at least one user interface; providing a generic storage manager library configuration block that is both storage manager independent and software release independent, said library configuration block interfacing with said operating system, and receiving inputs from and passing outputs to said at least one user interface; providing a metadisk driver coupled intermediate said library configuration block and said metadrivers; providing a database associated with said metadisk driver, said database containing information corresponding to said physical storage devices; providing for requesting an opaque listing of said physical storage devices from said metadisk driver and said database by a given user of said computer system using said at least one user interface; providing for determining a subset of said opaque listing of said physical storage devices meeting a preselected search criteria defined by said given user of said computer system; providing for converting said subset of said opaque listing of said physical devices to a non-opaque format listing; and providing for presenting said non-opaque format listing to said given user of said computer system by way of said at least one user interface.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said at least one user interface is selected from the group command line interface and graphical user interface.
 3. The method of claim 1 including the step of:providing for notifying users of said computer system of any status change of said physical storage devices through said non-opaque format listing and by way of said at least one user interface.
 4. A computer program product having a computer useable medium with computer readable code embodied therein, said computer usable medium for use in implementing computer mass storage management in a computer system, said computer system having an operating system, at least one user interface, physical mass storage devices that are controlled by device drivers, metadrivers that control said device drivers, a metadisk driver that controls said metadrivers, and a database that is associated with said metadisk driver and contains information corresponding to said physical mass storage devices, said computer readable codes devices comprising:first computer readable program code devices to effect providing a generic library configuration block between said metadisk driver and said at least one user interface, said library configuration block being operating system independent, said library configuration block receiving user inputs from said at least one user interface, and said library configuration block passing outputs to said at least one user interface; second computer readable program code devices configured to enable said at least one user interface to effect requesting an opaque listing of said physical mass storage devices from said metadisk driver and said database; third computer readable program code devices configured to enable said at least one user interface to effect determining a subset of said opaque listing of physical mass storage devices in accordance with a search criteria that is selected by a user of said computer system; fourth computer readable program code devices configured to effect converting said subset of said opaque listing of physical mass storage devices to a non-opaque format listing; and fifth computer readable program code devices configured to cause said at least one user interface to effect presenting said non-opaque format listing to said user.
 5. The computer program product of claim of claim 4 wherein said at least one user interface is selected from the group command line interface and graphical user interface.
 6. The computer program product of claim 4 further comprising:sixth computer readable program code devices configured to enable said at least one user interface to effect notifying said user of any status change of said physical mass storage devices by way of said non-opaque format listing.
 7. The computer program product of claim of claim 6 wherein said at least one user interface is selected from the group command line interface and graphical user interface.
 8. A system for the management of physical mass storage devices in a computer system having an operating system, a metadisk driver that operatively controls underlying metadrivers that operatively control underlying mass storage device drivers that operatively control underlying physical mass storage devices, said system comprising:a database associated with said metadisk driver, said database containing information corresponding to said physical mass storage devices; a library configuration block in operative association with said operating system, said library configuration block being coupled to said metadisk driver through said operating system; at least one user interface block coupled to said library configuration block for providing data input thereto and receiving data output therefrom; and said library configuration block being responsive to data input from said at least one user interface and operating to request an opaque listing of said physical mass storage devices, determine a subset of said opaque listing meeting a search criteria according to said data input, convert said subset of said opaque listing to a non-opaque format listing, and provide said non-opaque format listing as data output to said at least one user interface block.
 9. The system of claim 8 further comprising:a notify block in operative association with said metadisk driver for providing information to said metadisk driver regarding changes in status of said physical mass storage devices for presentation to said library configuration block and for presentation as output data to said at least one user interface.
 10. The system of claim 8 wherein said opaque listing comprises at least one storage descriptor.
 11. The system of claim 10 wherein said at least one storage descriptor further comprises at least one non-opaque storage descriptor identifier. 